Release
by Kestra
Summary: A fanfiction based on the Teen Titans, fighting as a set to protect one of the team from the darkness threatening to consume her... and the world in the process... [25th Septstory re-structured]
1. EPISODE ONE: The Prologue

**_Disclaimer: _**_I don't own the Teen Titans. Gee-wizz, what a surprise. TT © Warner Bros. Not me. This disclaimer applies to every chapter, intermission, line break and apostrophe, because I hate having to write the same thing in every chapter in all my fanfiction :P and I will continue to do so until someone sues me, or at least gives me a warning about it. _

**_Summary: _**_Sticking with plenty of other peoples' opinions my favourite character is Raven (closely followed by Cyborg, my waffle-loving Terminator). Thusly, my first Teen Titans fiction focuses on her. But I also wanted to write about how the Titans work as a team in order to defeat their enemies, which is what this fan fiction will be about, provided I can focus my writing skills long enough on making the story good. _

_Doubtful, but it's worth a shot._

_Don't take my writing literally. I'm going to make assumptions on what happened in the Titans' past, especially Raven's. I know her father is Trigon, she comes from a place called Azerath, and her emotions are pretty darn lethal. That's it. So I'll have to stick to my good old imagination to keep the story in check. It doesn't really matter, because that is what fan fiction writing is all about, isn't it? Making things up, writing for character's that don't say or do much… boy, is this going to be enjoyable._

_Oh yeah, and I've gained inspiration from other (better) authors on how to structure this fanfiction. Two 'episodes' made up of chapters. Originally it was going to be one story made up of chapters, but I wanted the prequel to go with the sequel because it saves space that way, and makes for smoother reading._

_I hope you enjoy _Release_. May the spork-wielding leprechauns be with you. _

_- Kestra-Kaito._

_PS. Constructive criticism is more useful than flames, thank you very much :) _

T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T

__

**Release**

**The Prologue:**

_"What's the matter… afraid of the dark..?"_

_"Get out of my mind, now."_  
_"'And leave you alone with that?" "'Not gonna' happen."_

_"It's my problem, I'll deal with it…_

_If I lose you'll be stuck in here forever."_

_"Let's just say I have issues with my father…"_

-----

It wasn't possible that he was fighting against her mind again. She had defeated him once already, through sheer force of will, and had Cyborg and Beast Boy as proof to anyone who did not believe her.

Unfortunate Beast Boy. He had come across her in one of her darker moods, and she'd had to shrug him off in her usual deadpan way. There was no remorse – there never was – but she still felt she should have at least graced him with an answer. He was her friend, after all.

But her mind was quite literally filled with confusing thoughts. Something was worrying her senses, like a bad feeling in the pit of her stomach, and she knew she could put a finger on exactly what it was.

She fingered the delicate spiny edges of her mirror, the portal into to her mind. She considered walking through the dimensions and spending some time double-checking that everything - her memories, her emotions – was stable. Especially him, or her, or whatever it counted as - the side that remained locked away. As it should be.

It turned out that there was no time for double-checking anything. She heard Robin's voice echo throughout the corridors of Titan Tower: "Titans! Trouble!" The mirror was replaced on her dresser, the bedroom door opened and closed, and Raven met up with her four companions moments later in the living-room area.

"Everyone assembled?" Robin switched on the large screen of the computer and pointed towards the city centre with his metal sparring pole. "The computer's picked up mass destruction in the centre area of town. It looks like one of Slade's goons' doing, but I can't be sure without having a closer look. That's where we're aiming for. Let's go!"

Even as they left T Tower, the nauseating feeling remained in her stomach. But there was nothing to be done at a time like this. She'd concentrate on it later.


	2. Every Day's a Fightin' Day

**Release**

**Chapter 1 – Every Day's a Fightin' Day:**

Strangely enough, the incident was not one of Slade's goons' doings. They realised this when they reached the city centre, to find a gigantic jet-black shadowy form coating one of the tallest buildings. It was like Plasmus, the gooey villain the Titans had fought before, but this one… it had no facial features, resembled a large slug with rubbery skin coating a thick, tar-like inside, and was, without a doubt, one of the strangest things Robin had ever seen. It looked like it was dozing, and seemed oblivious to the people running in terror from the great black mass threatening to immerse them all.

The Teen Titans stood and watched it for a moment.

"Hey Star. I think it's related to your junk food!" quipped Beast Boy, then burst out laughing at his own joke. The rest failed to see the humorous side - Starfire especially.

"I've never seen anything like it before," muttered Robin, twirling his sparring metal pole between his fingers thoughtfully. He glanced up at the sky, turning darker as the time wore on, and noticed, for the first time, the full white moon blazing back down at them. He stroked his chin thoughtfully. "But it is in full view of the moonlight. I wonder…"

"It does not appear to be doing any harm, Robin," Starfire said. "It looks quite content resting a top that grey office work area." The black thing squirmed and a lipless grin spread over what the Titan's assumed was its face. "Oh, how adorable! It is smiling! Perhaps we should leave it alone and see what happens?"

The black blob suddenly and without warning let out an enraged roar and slid thickly off of the building it was draped over, just as the moon was eclipsed by a passing cloud.

Beast Boy backed away nervously. "Sure, Star. Looks _real_ adorable now."

Robin stopped twirling his staff and smiled.

"It think… it likes the moonlight." His companions stared at him. "See, it was resting as close to the moonlight as it could, on top of the tallest building in the centre. But now it's angry because the moon's been covered up. That's why it's moved."

The black blob was now forcing its way through the narrow alleyways of the city centre, crushing buildings as it went past and causing the citizens to run from its suffocating mass. The Titans could see its squelching 'head' area poking over the top's of the office blocks.

Cyborg powered up his arm cannon. "Ugh, anyone else worried by the fact that it's comin' this way?"

Robin tightened one of his gloves and sprinted forward towards the hulking creature gliding its rough path towards them. "Titans!" he yelled. "Go!"

T-T-T

The creature did not enjoy being disturbed from its hunt for moonlight. It roared in fury as the five little irritating figures far below it began to attack it. Weapons fired against it were useless: they bounced off of its thick, rubbery black surface. One of the infuriating attackers fired some sort of blue blast towards it, which pierced its surface and dug deep into its blobby interior. Whilst a small wound like that had not in any way left a gaping wound, it had still hurt.

Two of the attackers took off into the air. The three left vulnerable on the street floor could be taken care of fairly quickly. The creature slithered towards them speedily, taking them by surprise – they had nowhere to run. It poured its body over them like thick syrup and immersed them in its hulking mass. Hopefully they would suffocate, or at least stick to the ground and stay there, unable to move.

The two irritations flying in the air were harder to take down. They darted through the air like quicksilver and it was hard to get a clear focus both of them at the same time. They flew down and managed to pull the green figure out of its black form…

T-T-T

"Dude, this stuff is like tar!" yelled Beast Boy angrily, grasping tightly onto Starfire's hand as he was pulled out of the blob's mass. He caught a strand of his hair and inspected it. Some of the blob's black skin had stuck to his hair and hardened it into spikes. "Make's pretty good hair gel, though."

"Where is Robin, and Cyborg?" Starfire called down to her companion desperately. "I cannot see them! I fear they are stuck in the 'garthonian slug'-like creature and cannot free themselves!"

"I don't know, all I remember is this gargantuan wave of black blobby-ness falling down on me- wait! Raven's got Cyborg! I can see them over there! He's ok: bit rusty though, ha… you can let go of me now, Star," he added, smiling thankfully at his friend. "I won't be going down to the ground anymore."

Starfire nodded and released his hand. Beast Boy fell momentarily, but then transformed into his pterodactyl form and swooped down on the black creature. He grazed the surface of the creature's skin with his claws, calling out in his animal voice for Robin.

Starfire was firing jade-green starbolts at the blob, making many small dents in its surface. Cyborg was standing on a building rooftop out of reach and was firing repeatedly at the mass with his arm cannon. There was no sign of Raven… or Robin…

No, wait! He noticed it as he swooped above the street floor, a flash of yellow and a green hand-shape hopelessly digging its way out of the black mass in which it was encased… Beast Boy the pterodactyl performed a U-turn and gave careful aim, reached out with a claw, grasped the green glove tightly and pulled a very black-surfaced Robin from his blobby prison.

The leader coughed up some black mass and spluttered, before nodding grimly up at Beast Boy. "Thanks," he muttered, and pulled a face at his stained yellow cloak. "Man! This stuff is like tar!"

Beast Boy smiled to himself…

T-T-T

The blob howled with rage as it was attacked by creatures just out of its reach. Realizing that it was, for the moment, defenceless, it stopped moving and sat there, a squirming mass that resembled a large dollop of black baking pastry, concentrating on creating a defensive structure. It pushed around inside of itself and suddenly forced eight flimsy tentacles through its thick skin-surface. The tentacles reached out and swatted at the nearest creature flying through the air, the one with the green weapons: it hit her and she went crashing into a nearby building. The other tentacles tried in vain to grasp each of the three other figures in sight.

The relentless tirade against it did not cease. The black creature groaned and continued helplessly defending itself with its newly acquired tentacles…

But wait! White moonlight flooded into the alleyway and poured down on the blob's skin: the moon had been freed from behind the passing cloud. The creature stopped defending itself, and focused, absorbing in the moon's light and changing it into internal energy.

T-T-T

Robin was still hanging in mid-air from Beast Boy's claw when the hulking mass stopped waving its new arms about. It was just sitting there, ignoring Starfire's starbolts and Cyborg's cannon blasts. Its attention seemed to be elsewhere.

Robin peered at it more closely. Beast Boy called out in his animalistic voice and hovered nearer to the creature for a better look.

It seemed to be re-arming itself.

The creature was slowly growing in mass, its blobby flesh squirming its way through the alleyways in which it sat. It was growing taller in height; its tentacle arm things were becoming thicker, as was the surface of its skin; it looked shiny and smooth, like stone.

Robin followed to where its 'head' was facing, and caught the light of the moon full in his face. Blinded, he shouted out to his friends, "Keep attacking it! It likes the moonlight! It's... it's absorbing it! Keep its attention away from the moonlight!"

"Allow me," came the monotonous voice from behind him.

"Azerath... Metrion… ZINTHOS!"

T-T-T

The creature was about to go on the attack with it's newly found energy, when it felt itself being squashed together, as though being bound around the middle tightly with rope.

It roared and turned to its new foe. The figure was levitating next to her green and yellow-green-black companions, her hands held out towards him. The creature roared again and narrowed its lidless eyes, preparing to pull a tentacle up from its side, to throw this new irritation from the sky.

But it could not move. It was being manipulated, being kneaded into different shapes like dough, felt itself being lifted off of the ground and then slammed back down again. It lost its concentration on the moonlight, and before it could focus again, the moon was lost behind another cloud.

With the creature momentarily trapped the Titans all joined each other on the rooftop where Cyborg had positioned himself. Robin leapt to the ground whilst Beast Boy landed and transformed back into his humane original form. Their blue-cloaked companion remained hovering above them.

Raven was focusing all of her will on keeping the creature firmly locked up between her black telekinetic powers. It was clearly struggling and couldn't fight against her. Holding a creature such as this in limbo was like playing with baking dough: lifting it up and then flattening it down against the surface, lifting it up, and then slamming it down again.

"How long can you keep this up?" she heard Robin say nearby.

"Not… long," she replied slowly, her mind elsewhere. The others began to discuss what to do with the bound creature, their voices growing more distant with each sentence. This was usual when her powers were in use: she paid attention to nothing but her enemy.

"What shall we do with the creature, Robin?"

"I say we set it on fire!"

"No, we don't know what it's made of. It could ignite the whole city!"

"Might I suggest water? The ocean is only a few miles away in the eastern direction, and the sea water might dispel the mass and leave the city clean again!"

The creature was wriggling helplessly, trapped within her power. Raven watched with satisfaction at its squirming arms trying to break through the field of black psychic power it found itself encased it. She smirked to herself.

"That isn't a bad idea."

"Yeah! It's like oil, or poster paint! If we coat the blob in water it might run, or weaken, or something. The ocean's worth a shot-"

"Hello! What about all the animals in the sea? Ever heard of oil spills?"

"Where else can it go, then?"

Her hands were shaking with the effort of holding the blob still. The creature gave a failing roar: its size was diminishing rapidly. Raven wanted to crush it, to force it into a tighter sphere of black mass, to watch it dissolve into nothingness. It was easily within her capabilities…

"I vote the sea…"

"-far out to sea!-"

"…where it can't reach land anymore…"

"-or innocent sea animals!-"

She wanted them to decide. The effort of holding the creature at bay was becoming harder by the minute. But her friends seemed to have forgotten about her, struck in one of their ridiculous arguments.

Plus the opportunity to squash the hulking black mass was going to pass… and she found herself unwilling to miss it.

She was getting lost in her own powers. Everything but her and the blob creature was fading into black, and the voices of everyone around her were disappearing into oblivion.

Except… all but one:

_Go ahead, little Crow._

Raven gave a start. Her friends did not seem to notice.

_Go on. Crush the creature. Force it smaller, kneed it, dent it until it has no choice but to fade away. It is helpless. It cannot defend itself. Better to take action… before you lose your grip…_

Raven shook her head. Not now, of all times…

_Or are you losing you grip already, little Crow? Are you lost already?_

She had control now. There was no way, because that side was locked away: she had defeated it, and had Beast Boy and Cyborg to prove it. "Get back…" she muttered to herself, louder than she had intended. The four Titans standing on the roof below noticed her this time. "Raven?" one of them asked: she couldn't be sure who. "You okay?"

_No she isn't._

Get back where you belong.

_Help her soon: she's losing control…_

_I would not be pathetic enough to let the creature struggle enough to break free… let me to do it, little Crow… I'll crush it, force it smaller, _

No…

_kneed it, dent it,_

No!

_until it has no choice but to disappear… _

_It would be my pleasure…_

"NO!" Raven cried out, her hands jolting backwards as she flashed back to reality. Her focus was undone, and the grip she had held on the creature vanished.

The black creature jumped backwards in surprise, moving its squelching mass in all directions, realising it was free. It decided to act before it could become trapped again.

One of the great thick tentacles flew forward like a dart. Before Raven or any of the other Titans could react, it wrapped around her waist and, like a whip, hurled her downwards, forcing her to fall headfirst into the black, hulking, suffocating mass, down in the streets below.


End file.
